How Are Execs Measuring UX?

May 20, 2022

More than two-thirds of user experience (UX) executives believe that UX positively impacts customer satisfaction, and a similar share (62%) believe it improves brand perception, according to the latest annual State of UX Survey [download page] from UserZoom.

Perhaps as a result (or cause) of these perceptions around customer satisfaction, this emerges as the metric that most respondents to the survey use to measure UX. Some 63% reported customer satisfaction to be a metric they use, ahead of business metrics such as sales retention (60%) and product or site analytics (51%). Close behind, almost half (48%) evaluate UX on the basis of outcomes such as downloads, conversions and support tickets. Fewer use net promoter score (31%) or composite UX metrics such as SUS or SUPR-Q (25%).

The authors caution that the leading metrics “say little about how users react to digital experiences or how to improve them,” although they do acknowledge that there is interest in more UX benchmarking in the year to come, suggesting that this might change.

On a positive note, 91% of respondents are using some form of measurement to evaluate their UX efforts, however more than 4 in 10 (43% of) organizations don’t have processes in place to make design and UX decisions based on feedback.

Who Owns UX?

Much as with the debate over who owns the customer experience, ownership of UX is fractured. Only 1 in 8 organizations surveyed have a UX leader in the C-suite. Instead, UX leaders are most likely to be found in middle management, whether at the Director (37.5% share) or Manager (31.9% share) level.

As for the C-suite executive responsible for UX, there’s also a splintering of accountability. Some 16% share say it’s the Chief Technology Officer, while 14% say that it’s the Chief Product Officer, and 9% the Chief Marketing Officer (of note: UX design has been considered one of the most desirable marketing skills). The most common response, though, was that each business unit or function is responsible for user experience, as noted by 1 in 5 respondents.

How Are Organizations Using UX?

The most common use for UX is to identify usability/user problems to address, as cited by roughly two-thirds (68%) of respondents. Close behind, 66% use UX to validate/test designs, while about 6 in 10 do so to understand the customer journey. Further down the list of use cases, half are using UX to drive product strategy and innovation.

Overall, demand for UX is increasing, according to 7 in 10 respondents, although almost half (45%) say that budgets have stayed flat. As a result, budget constraints are the second-most cited UX research obstacle, tied with resource constraints and behind only time constraints.

For more, download the report here.

About the Data: The results are based on a global survey of 693 digital experience professionals across a variety of roles and seniority.

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